Ayna steered the bike back the same way with Saketa’s arms wrapped around her torso. Given their size and weight difference she hoped she wouldn’t actually have to serve as any kind of meaningful anchor for the strange warrior.

Nothing was said after they set out. Ayna had to focus on steering the bike over rough terrain and still had some processing to do, and it seemed Saketa did as well. It occurred to her that the woman couldn’t actually see anything and was just floating along blindly through bumps and drops, but she seemed to be handling it fine.

They passed above the valley, down the old road and then along the main one. The town’s night-time lights shone brightly up in the sky well before Ayna had a view of the buildings themselves. It would be strange to go on a tour with Herdis after all this. She wondered if the woman would notice something off about Ayna’s emotional state, and how to respond if she brought it up.

In time the town spread out below them. It was all as quiet as could be expected, the sole visible movement being a single ship taking off into the sky. Saketa patted her shoulder.

“What?”

“Just leave me here,” the woman said. “I will walk the rest of the way. I need to do some thinking.”

Ayna brought the bike to a stop and Saketa stepped off.

“Well...” Ayna scratched her head. “It’s been... well, I don’t know what it’s been. I’m glad all that’s over with.”

“I missed the wanderer,” Saketa replied. “It is not over for m-”

The woman stopped and shook her head, then looked up at her.

“Take care, Ayna,” she said. “You have a good core. I urge you to nurture it.”

“Thank you,” Ayna said, wishing she could say something similarly poetic. “I hope you’ll feel better.”

“Perhaps,” the woman said. “Perhaps.”

She held her hand up in a bit of a wave, and that was apparently the end of it. Ayna drove off, leaving Saketa on the road.

This was an experience, Ayna thought. She had a feeling Saketa would take the next flight off the planet, taking her answers with her. Ayna drove down to even ground, leaving the growth behind. She steered the machine silently into the streets and found the spot where she’d stored it. She parked and got off, rubbing her sore underside and sighing.

Dawn wasn’t far off and Ayna wondered if she should even bother going to bed. She took out her comm and remembered she’d silenced it for the sake of stealth. Herdis had tried to contact her eight times.

Alarm shot through Ayna. This could only be an emergency of some sort, and she promptly called back. The woman answered almost immediately.

“Ayna, are you alright?” she asked with controlled intensity.

“I... yes. I went for a little trip outside of town. I just got-”

“Don’t say where you are,” Herdis told her. “They might be listening in.”

“Who?” Ayna said and gazed about the empty streets.

“Do you remember the spot where we saw that pink creature?” Herdis asked.

“Yes,” Ayna replied after a moment’s thought.

“I’m a bit south of it. Come find me. Stay out of sight.”

The call ended and Ayna stared at the little device in her hand. Then her mind shifted into survival mode. She drew a mental map to the spot Herdis had mentioned and then went over the best way to get there. She remembered street lights on a section of it, and so she ran for the nearest wall and leapt. She got a handhold on a window frame and climbed up onto the roof. Then she continued on as she had during these last few nights, manoeuvring to and fro as needed to progress without going down to ground level.

What was going on? The town itself was utterly quiet; there was no general crisis unfolding. This was something particular to them. Had her poking about on the periphery of that odd little death cult, or whatever it was, triggered something? Or was it that record keeper? Saketa had believed she’d dealt with the former, but how could the latter have followed them here?

She kept her eyes on the streets, seeing nothing as she went. Even the drunks were now either home or unconscious. She noted landmarks as she went, retracing that walk back to that corner where they’d seen the long, slithering pink animal. As she stood on a house that rose slightly above its neighbours she could make it out; it was opposite a corner decorated with an odd woven... thing.

The surrounding streets were wider, and so she finally had to get down on ground level. The houses she passed looked rather desolate; failed businesses, perhaps, or storage housing. She had a feeling that there were few human beings around, which might be a good thing.

Herdis was at a bit of an open area, where man-high piles of bricks had been stacked for some project or another. She had the rifle in her hand, the armoured hood of her suit up, and an alert demeanour, none of which did anything to soothe Ayna’s nerves.

“It’s me,” Ayna said as she approached, just loudly enough to be heard.

The woman was clearly startled and couldn’t see her at first, but to her credit she didn’t swing the rifle around. Ayna walked up to her, and noticed the woman had one of her own travelling bags.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Bers, she’s here,” Herdis said into her comm, attached to her shoulder. “Do you see anything?” she then asked Ayna.

“No. Now what is this about?”

“Two ships landed here yesterday evening, just after we came back from the ruins,” Herdis reminded her. “One of the labourers came and warned Bers; the people on those ships are very shady and have been asking around about a crew with a Dwyyk and a Chanei, both female.”

“Those pirates,” Ayna said.

“Seems like it,” Herdis replied. “We’re leaving. We’ll go to the next town over and wait for the Addax. We took the essentials and left the hotel. We have a car ready to go. It’s just outside of town. Do you have your gun?”

“Yes,” Ayna replied automatically and patted the weapon, silently wondering at the woman truly being this blind in low light. “Where’s Bers?”

“He’s nearby. But I think so are the pirates. We need to hurry.”

She pointed.

“The car is that way. I need you to play scout.”

“That’s... fair,” Ayna replied, although she’d rather hoped adventures were over for now.

She turned to the nearest building. The row it was a part of stood quite closely together, but the walls were smooth and sheer.

“Can you give me a boost?”

“A boost?” Herdis asked, although she followed Ayna as she moved to the building.

“Higher vantage point. Aren’t soldiers all about that?”

“Just be quick,” Herdis said as she allowed Ayna to step up onto her shoulders.

Ayna did indeed do her best to work quickly, seeking purchase before Herdis would tire too much. She ended up jumping a little bit, and then made it up onto the roof.

“Can you see me?” she asked.

“A bit,” Herdis said. “Let’s go.”

Ayna let her feet be whispers on the rooftops, staying a little bit ahead of Herdis down on her right. The woman moved like the trained professional that she was; in a crouch, with the rifle at the ready in steady hands. Ayna had made her second leap over a narrow gap when she saw something.

“Movement,” she whispered into the comm. “Up ahead, on my right.”

The woman promptly darted into cover by one of the brick stacks, peering out through the rifle scope. Ayna reflected that it had a thermal setting, as she herself crouched low on the roof.

“Five of them,” she added. “Armed.”

There were three men and two women clad in sturdy clothing, the kind one could easily fit armour weave underneath. In the lead was a bulky man with a neat black beard, and the rest followed him out of a side street and out into the open area. They were alert, searching, gazing every which way.

Ayna did a quick estimate and didn’t like Herdis’s chances of sneaking away. Apparently neither did Herdis, because instead of trying she activated a laser sight on the rifle, aiming it square at the leader’s centre mass.

“Hold it!” the woman shouted, and waved the red dot around a little to draw attention to it.

The man noticed and the group stopped. Ayna drew her pistol.

Ohhh boy.

“Good evening,” the man said evenly and raised his hands a bit with a slightly mocking flourish, betraying his familiarity with guns and danger. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

“No one move, no one draw a weapon,” Herdis told them sternly. “There won’t be a second warning.”

“Mm,” the man vocalised. “You’re Herdis, aren’t you?” he then said, peering into the gloom. “The soldier lady. We’ve been asking around. I’m Jonso.”

Ayna took the scene in. Herdis didn’t have immediate cover to fall back to, while the pirates only had to run a few steps to reach brick piles on either side of the open space. There was another side street, but it was blocked by a thin wall made of that local weave. And Ayna herself kept her gun at the ready and wondered what the hell she was supposed to do.

“What do you want?” Herdis asked.

“Oh, I think you know,” the pirate replied. “Your group has something a lot of dangerous people want. Why don’t you just hand it over, and we’ll leave it at that?”

“No,” Herdis told him.

Ayna almost suggested just playing along, but the simple fact was that they didn’t have that stupid record keeper.

Jonso let out a slow, menacing chuckle.

“Let me make things a bit clearer,” he said. “We have multiple ships around, asking about you folks. We came here in two, and the other just left to go fetch the boss. So you can give me that keeper while there’s just one ship’s worth of us here on this turd of a planet, or you can give it to her, when there are at least three ships. Now... I’m reasonable. The boss is not.”

Ayna was probably the only one who heard the faint sounds of movement coming from beyond the pirates. She raised her gun more. Violence was in the air.

“You have my answer,” Herdis said. “Now put your guns on the ground. Slowly.”

The man stared back at her defiantly, and Ayna raised her gun further. She almost didn’t notice the people coming from the other end of the street, behind Herdis.

“Behind you!” Ayna hissed into the comm. “More!”

Jonso bared his teeth at Herdis.

“You can-”

Herdis blew his head apart.

A bolt of shock went through Ayna, but the pirates reacted like veterans and dove for the available cover.

The woven wall burst open and through it came Bers, screaming and holding his axe in both hands. The pirates turned on him, but the nearest one couldn’t get a shot off in time. The axe clove her head apart. A man brought a short-barrelled rifle out from under a coat, but Bers cut it in two.

Herdis sprang from cover and advanced, leading with her rifle. The group coming up the street broke into a run, but evidently didn’t see well enough to risk firing.

The man Bers had disarmed tried backtracking while going for a sidearm, but the Fringer beheaded him in one swing. Ayna fired towards a woman as she readied to shoot him. The bolt went into the ground right next to her, causing a flinch. Herdis then shot her.

The last man fled in a panic, going for the nearest side street. The other group was still coming and Ayna turned her gun towards them. She aimed low, sending a bolt into the ground before them, driving them into cover.

Bers drew his pistol and fired a shot after the one fleeing man, but only hit a corner as his target made it out of sight. Herdis turned smoothly and fired towards the other group. Ayna fired again, still aiming at nothing in particular.

“Go!” Herdis said. “To the car!”

Ayna happily obeyed and continued on along the row of buildings. She looked back with every other step, keeping track of the other group. She jumped over three more streets before reaching one too wide. She holstered the pistol at a run and leapt off, landing with a roll that dispersed the energy of the fall. Then she bounced back up and ran along with the other two, out of the town.